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PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
18
pubmed:dateCreated
2000-10-13
pubmed:abstractText
Many patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) are not cured by current therapy because of the development of drug resistance. It is not clear when resistance develops during the growth of the leukemic clone and whether resistant cells are already present at diagnosis or develop later during treatment. Twenty-two uniformly treated children with ALL were studied throughout induction treatment. The size of the leukemic clone in blood and marrow was estimated by limiting dilution PCR analysis, using the rearranged immunoglobulin heavy chain gene as a molecular marker. The decline in the number of leukemic cells was biphasic in virtually all patients. For both marrow and blood, the logarithmic mean of the number of leukemic cells fell by approximately four orders of magnitude during the first 2 weeks, one order of magnitude during the third week, and not at all during the last two weeks of induction treatment. For marrow, the median of the fraction of leukemic cells in each patient that survived per week of treatment was 0.008 for the first 2 weeks, 0.12 for the third week, and 1.4 for the last 2 weeks; for blood, the corresponding figures were 0.003, 0.14, and 0.69, respectively. In individual patients, the results for marrow and blood showed good correlation. The biphasic decline of leukemic cell number suggests that most leukemic cells were sensitive to treatment and were rapidly killed, leaving behind a minor but substantial population of drug-resistant cells. The most likely explanation for this phenomenon is that these resistant cells were already present at diagnosis, their resistance having originated from genetic or epigenetic mutations during prior growth of the leukemic clone.
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Sep
pubmed:issn
0008-5472
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:day
15
pubmed:volume
60
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
5092-6
pubmed:dateRevised
2007-11-15
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2000
pubmed:articleTitle
Early resistance to therapy during induction in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
pubmed:affiliation
Department of Hematology and Genetic Pathology, Flinders University of South Australia and Flinders Medical Center, Bedford Park, Australia.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't